More Krauth

The mightiest weapon which the Reformation employed against Rome was, not Rome's errors, but Rome's truths. It professed to make no new discoveries, to find no unheard-of interpretations but taking the Scriptures in that very sense to which the greatest of her writers had assented, uncovering the law and the gospel of God which she retained, applying them as her most distinguished and most honored teachers had applied them, though she made them of none effect by her traditions, the Reformation took into its heart the life-stream of sixteen centuries, and came forth in the stature and strength of a Christianity, grown from infancy in the primitive ages, to the ripened manhood of that maturer period. There was no fear of truth, simply because Rome held it, and no disposition to embrace error, because it might be employed with advantage to Rome's injury.... They allowed no authority but the Word of God, but they listened respectfully to the witness of believers of all time. (p. 203)